Agricom.id, JAKARTA – Comission IV, Indonesian Legislators urged ministry of agriculture to encourage the farmers using organic fertilizers to create the environment security and qualified products. Besides, the agricultural products would have better selling values and health and could be sold in many countries.

Vice Chairman of Commission IV, Indonesian Legislators, Dedi Mulyadi said that the fertilizer is one production infrastructure which plays the important role to increase the productivity. The government always allocates the big budget through the subsidized fertilizers for the farmers to get the qualified fertilizers.

“I think, in the long term, the farmers should not depend on chemical fertilizers. They should be taken to be in synergy with the livestock, fishery, and the environment sectors to be independent processing the organic fertilizers,” he said in the virtual hearing, Monday (5/10/2020), as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He also mentioned that to realize food security nationally, the government tries to increase the productivity and quality of the agricultural harvest through the ‘right on technology’ by using the infrastructures in each region.

One production infrastructure which plays important role to increase the agricultural productivity and result is fertilizer. Ministry of agriculture should do the best to recover the soil to avoid degradation because of the high and massive fertilizer usage.

“We should not decrease the significant production because of the broken soil,” he said.

In the same spot, General Director of Food Plantation, Ministry of Agriculture, Suwandi told that his side allocated the subsidized and organic fertilizers quote. Besides, ministry of agriculture has the related program about the organic fertilizer usage that would be always developed/

“The farmers could use organic fertilizer from their environment from the waste by re-use, reduce, and recycle (3R) program," Suwandi told.

He also mentioned the increasing chemical fertilizer usage would make the soil bad because it has no worm or microbe.

“We would always encourage the organic fertilizer usage so that the farmers could minimize the chemical fertilizers usage,” he said.

General Director of Agriculture Infrastructure, Ministry of Agriculture, Sarwo Edhy said that based on the publication of Daftar Isian Pelaksanaan Anggaran (DIPA), the budget for the fertilizer subsidy in 2020 increased about 1 million tons or about Rp 3,1 billion.

"The subsidized fertilizer distribution in September 2020 was 72,03 percent. The numbers may be enough to fulfill the fertilization in the second planting,” he said. (A2)